RealmSpeak is my Java application for playing Avalon Hill's Magic Realm over the internet. My intention for this blog is to provide a central place where I can post updates to the application, and muster the responses I get in a public forum. Check the sidebar for other computer conversions of great board games.

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Saturday, May 26, 2007

Stable Release

I feel like its worth mentioning that version 0.45 is sweeeeeet. :)

I played a game last night from 9pm until 1:30am, and with the exception of one person having to quit and restart due to a gray screen, the game played flawlessly. One big success is the fact that the trade interface worked without freezing up even once! As those of you that have played this game online know, this has been a pervasive problem for a long time.

The speed of the interface online is hugely improved. I promise that you will notice a difference, especially during combat. Because it is so much faster, the combat screen doesn't blink anymore. When you press NEXT, the screen is repainted instantly. I can't tell you how nice that is.

I got to try out the Enchant Artifact spell in a real game, and it was pretty nice. After dying once with the Black Knight (stupid axe goblins!), I decided to play the Sorceror. I selected Enchant Artifact, Fiery Blast, and Lightning as my starting spells. One of the first things that I did, was team up with the Great Elf at the house, and with two alerted IV chits, killed all the soldiers. Looting the house afterwards revealed the Book of Lore, which the Great Elf shared with the Sorceror. I used Enchant Artifact to add the Fiery Blast spell to the book, and suddenly had myself a powerful speed 0 weapon. Nice!

Anyway, the game is still in progress as a save game, which hopefully we'll pick up again next week. The Great Elf found a nice source of income (Food Ale), a M bow, and the Woodfolk in his employ. The White Knight had a pretty nice stint in the Mountain tile, killing 2 or 3 Giants, and a handful of spiders. We found the Vault, Cairns, and just before quitting, the Lair. There's going to be some sweet looting next week.

I should mention that I did lose the Sorceror to some bats right before we quit, but we decided to restore from a save game instead, to recover that stupid mistake (I was getting tired). I know, that's cheating, but hey, we're having fun!